https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLuH9hAH1yAWho knew snails could be so passionate?
Not I, at least not until I watched Microcosmos, the 1996 documentary of an insect world hidden in plain sight.
I offer these snails as an alternative to today's torrent of romantically hooked science news. We have scientists getting their Cupid on; others purporting to identify the genetic basis of compatibility; and others explaining the self-evident – hot people tend to date hot people, and try their best to score with people who look better than them. You may also be surprised to learn that romantic fidelity may have driven the co-development of human social intelligence and brain size – though the cynic in me wonders if maybe romantic infidelity was the real motivation.
Science-of-love stories are always fun, but when it comes to explaining the human heart's mysteries, I must confess that I don't often apply the science to my own life. It tends to explain away the good without making the bad feel any better.
So in honor of the love all around us, I present to you – snails.
Video: Microcosmos
See Also:
- Tell Us: Is Love at First Sight a Myth?
- Space, The Final Frontier for Homosexuality
- Greek Chemists Lure World's Strongest Beetle
- Hot and Heavy at the Hospital: Medical Romance Fiction Flourishes
- Russians Deny Sex-in-Space Stories. Again.
- Use Them or Lose Them: More Sex Makes Better Sperm
- Calling Jerry Springer: Embryo Mixing Could Make Three-Parent Children
